A heat view of this page. Move across it to warm it; click to send up a flare.Tap it to send up a flare.
Where we try things first.
Most studios wait for a brief. We test ideas that could help our clients on our own site first, write down what happens, including what fails, and bring the ones that work to clients before they ask.
We don’t wait for a brief
Good ideas rarely arrive as a request. So we go looking, prove them on our own site, and only then bring them to you.
- 1Notice
A pattern in how people use a site, a new tool worth trying, or a question a client has not thought to ask yet.
- 2Test it here
We build it on our own site, for real visitors on real devices, to the same speed, privacy and accessibility standards as client work.
- 3Keep, change or drop
We write down what happened, including when the answer is no. Finding out here costs us a little time. Finding out on your platform would cost you far more.
- 4Bring it to you
Ideas that work reach client platforms as proposals, each with a cost and a way to measure it. You decide.
Which parts of a page do people actually read?
An example pricing page. Watch a sample visit heat it up, then try it yourself: move your cursor and pause where you would read. The readout turns the pattern into a change worth testing.
Move your cursor over the page, and pause where you would read.
A few seconds of reading is enough for a first read of the pattern.
One visit proves nothing. On a real site we look at hundreds before suggesting a change, and then we test it.
The same idea, live on every page. Switch on heat view, then browse: each page glows where visitors’ cursors lingered.
Anonymous by design: a page, a rough position and a count. No visitor IDs or IP addresses are stored, nothing is recorded on touch screens, and browsers that send Global Privacy Control are skipped.
What it could do for a business
- Put it in front of your own users
Show sellers which parts of their listing get read, or editors which sections of an article hold attention, inside your own product.
- Measure without following anyone
Counts by page section, with no profiles or IDs, and nothing recorded for visitors who ask not to be tracked.
- Keep the data yours
Counts live on your own platform for about a month, then they are gone. No third-party script on your pages.
Do you need it?For most sites, a free tool like Microsoft Clarity does the job, and we will set it up for you. We build this when recordings and third-party scripts are off the table, or when the data should live inside your product.
Can one page speak to every kind of customer?
An example accounting firm’s homepage. Pick who is visiting and the headline, services and button change to match. Choose one, then reload: the page remembers, without an account or a form.
Nothing is sent anywhere. The choice and your name stay in this browser, and your name also labels your cursor on our homepage.
What it could do for a business
- One site, many first impressions
Restaurants, contractors and nonprofits each see their own headline and services, without building a website for each. Search engines see the general version, so nothing is hidden from Google.
- Remember returning visitors
The choice is kept in the visitor’s own browser and never sent to us, so the next visit starts where they left off.
- Learn which message works
Compare how each version performs, then put more into the one that brings in inquiries.
Seen something your platform could use?
On Core and Accelerator, the ideas that work here are offered to your platform. On Accelerator, one experiment a month runs on yours.
Our own tools
Some of what we build in the lab is for us, so client work gets faster and better.
Not every idea makes it
That is the point of testing here first. Three from our notebook: one we kept, one we changed and one we dropped, and the rule each one gave us for client work.
- Kept
An anonymous attention map
Counts by page section, with no IDs. It now runs on every page of this site.
The rule we keptYou can learn a lot about a page without tracking a single person.
- Changed
A 3D version of our logo
The first version had faceted letters and a flat spark. We rebuilt both, and it now loads only on devices that run it smoothly.
The rule we keptAn effect has to work on an older phone too, or that phone never sees it.
- Dropped
Your name in giant, glowing letters
Type your name and the letters swelled and heated up as your cursor came near. It got a “that’s cool” and nothing more. It showed off our typography, not anything a business could use, so it left the lab.
The rule we keptImpressive is not the same as useful. If it doesn’t help someone do something, it doesn’t ship.
You’ll hear from us first
Most agencies wait for a ticket. When we look after your platform, we message you when we spot something worth trying, and what it would take.
Aftercare plans